The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1866. RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 84, 12 June 1866, Page 2

The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1866. RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

[Before J. Poynter, Esq., It. M.] This Day. clothes stkaling. Mary Ann Turner was charged with stealing a watch an 1 clothes from the house of George Marshall, Toi-Toi Valley. She was defended by Mr. Kingdon. The prosecutor said : On Saturday night last I left ray house, leaving the back door open. On returning I found tlie candle removed and the drawer open. A watch, pair of socks, some collars, and a night dress were missing. I and my wife met the prisoner and suspected her on finding the clothes gone. When the police arrested her I saw the collar drop from her breast. On missing the clothes I informed tlie police. Tlie articles now produced were found in a gorso bush on my premises. I identify them as mine. Richard Nichol: Last Saturday night I saw tlie prisoner close to Marshall's house. She went to the gate and stood there with a boy. I then saw a light in the house for about ten minutes, after which she came out of the gate with several parcels in her hand. I went hack and told her she had been in the house. She said, You are a liar. She then said, Well, I have, and got this bottle out of it. She then sat down for about 20 minutes. She cooed to her son, who came back, when she said, Take this candle into mother Marshall's house. She sat at the end of Marshall's fence. The watch has not been found. To Mr. Kingdon : I never saw the prisoner before. It was a dark night, but I am sure she is the same person. I knew her by her features, dress, and shoulders. I was three yards off. I did not see her in the house. lam sure it is the same person who called me a liar. Eliza Fox : I saw the prisoner once before last Saturday night, when I saw her as I accompanied the last witness, lam sure she is the person he referred to. The night was starlight. I was six yards off and could not be mistaken. I live 50 or 60 yards from her place, Constable Murphy: I found the clothes now produced, in Marshall's fence. He and I were in search of them. We had heard that the prisoner had been sitting in the line of the fence. We found nothing in her house when we took her into custody. It was a wet night from half-past 12 till 20 minutes to two. George Marshall re-examined by the bench : I saw a collar fall from the prisoner when the police pulled her out of her own house. I could swear the collar was mine, although I picked it up and put it back again. The place was not searched soon enough, and Turner had plenty of opportunity to destroy it. Mr. Kingdon said, it was clearly a case of mistaken identity. It was a dr-rk night when the iiouse was robbed, and without imputing blame to any of the witnesses, it was fair to assume that on hearing of the robbery they had thought her to be the guilty party. The clothes were found in a fence, and as it was a wet night, they were too clean to have been taken from the drawer in question. There was not sufficient evidence to commit the prisoner of the theft, the bottle was not sworn to., and the collar was not produced. If it was a case of suspicion, the clothes were not found in the woman's possession. The Magistrate said he thought it possible the watch might be found, and he should remand the case till Thursday. ASSAULTING THE DUN MOUNTAIN BUS DRIVKR. W. Weeden complained against R. Trewellan, for assaulting him last evening, at the Port. Defendant admitted the assault, hat pleaded that he was in liquor at the time, and that he was annoyed at complainant giving him sixpence short in the change. The Magistrate: If you were in liquor, how do you know the change was short? You have got yourself into an awkward predicament by taking the law into your own hands. This conduct mast be put a stop to, and it is of the greatest importance that the public should be protected, or respectable persons, especially females, will be d .it erred from travelling these dark nights. An example must, therefore, be made in the present instance. I shall line you £5 for the assault, and give you two months' imprisonment in default of payment. The complainant remarked that it was after he got oait of the hns that the defendant committed the assault. He was quiet enough in the bus.

The receipts at the meeting of the Provincial Land and Building Society, last evening, were £410. At Nelson College, there are three scholarships open for competition; the Richmond scholarship of £30 per annum ; the Stafford scholarship of £20 per annum, and the foundation scholarship of £30 per annum. The meeting for drill of the Volunteers, takes place on the parade ground, to-morrow, at 4.30, p.m. It will be seen that another pugilistic person has come to grief, by assaulting the Dun Mountain bus conductor. It is not a word nnd a blow, but a blow first with many of the passeugers who pay Nelson a visit by the steamers. A smart fine or a short imprisonment will, however, cure this sort of thing. A movement is on foot in Wellington, to carry out the trusts of the deed nnder which Sir G. Grey, as far back as 1853, set apart certain lands, already yielding an income of £200, as an endowment for a grammar school, in which the highest branches of education will be taught. The Wanganui Times, complains of the time it has lost in looking for news in the colonial newspapers. After some hesitation, it refused to clip from the Independent, the only readable extract in its columns, filched from an American paper. The Superintendent of Wellington lately complained of the unsatisfactory state of the educational endowments. In 1853, some 240 acres were set apart at Wanganui. The land is worth £10,000, but no industrial school exists. He said Sir G. Grey gave 75 acres of the town belt of Wellington for a similar endowment, but uo school has been attempted. The Roman Catholics of Wanganui, recently gave a musical entertainment in aid of the School Room, erected by them. The band of the 14th Regiment, was allowed by Colonel Trevor to attend. It is proposed to establish a railway from Wellington to the Wairarapa. The third batch of the Hau-Hau prisoners were to be conveyed to the Chatham Islands, by the St. Kilda, on the 2nd instant. The consecration of St. Paul's Church, the Cathedral of Wellington, took place on the 6th inst. The ceremony was performed by the Lord Bishop, accompanied by the clergy of his diocese. His Excellency the Governor, attended by his staff, and Bishop Monrad, witnessed the ceremony. A private of the 57th Regiment has been flogged in the Albert Barracks Square, Auckland, receiving fifty lashes for having struck a sergeant of the same regiment. The cat-0,-nine-tails was handled by a farrier of the R.A. — blood being drawn from the back of the private on the infliction of the first blow. Upon the man being released from tho triangle, he at once turned upon the farrier, and struck him a heavy blow upon the iace, causing the blood to flow freely from his nose. Statistical returns recently published by the Government, show that tho European population in 1864, was 172,158, of whom 106,580 were males, and 65,578 females. Of this population the Middle Island furnished 106,809, and the North Islaud, 65,263. In ISOI the Maori population was assumed to be 50,056 in the North Island, and 2,280 in t_e Middle Island. The native Avar is supposed to have greatly reduced this number. The Daily Times reports that as Lady Don was leaving Otago, she visited the Maori Kaik at the Heads. One of the Maoris recognised her, and she was forced to sing "My Johnny is a shoemaker" to please them. The Maoris, including the Princess, danced to the tune. The Southland Times says, Mr. William Steele, the letter-carrier, gave a concert at the Theatre Royal on the anniversary of tho Queen's Birthday. He was pelted by the audience, with every description of filth, to such an extent that" the entertainment was brought to an abrupt termination. Mr. and Mrs. Ileiue, intend payiDg a visit to luvercargill. The Thaue which left Nelson on the 2nd, arrived at Hokitika on the 6th inst. Iv crossing the bar she touched the ground.

The decks were flooded, and the water was on a level with the lower bars of the furnaces. As soon as possible the head sails were set, way was soon regathered, and the wharf reached. Telegraphic communication will beopen to tbe public in a few days, between Hokitika and Grey town. Hokitika has been proclaimed a municipal district. The total shipment of gold by the Otago, from the West Coast, was 30,400 ounces. It is estimated that there are 3,000 miners and business people in the Waimea mining district. The Bank of New Zealand at Hokitika has been robbed of £2,500 worth of alluvial and melted gold. The gold was taken from the safe, the key of which was stolen during the temporary abseuce of Mr. Allen, the manager. Francis Bouchier, rate collector to the Dunedin corporation, was sentenced at the Criminal Sessions, June 4th, to two years' imprisonment, with hard labor, for embezzling the funds of the corporation. He is more than 50 years of age, and has a family of young children. The Rev. Jno. Campbell of the Presbyterian Church, holds divine service, at Hokitika, in the hall of the fire-brigade engine house. The Hokitika Chronicle states that the Right Rev. Dr. Harper, Bishop of the Diocese, performs divine service in the Court Honse, at Hokitika. It is his intention to establish regular services throughout Westland, where practicable. We learn from the Chronicle that the new track from the Kanieri township to tho Hau Hau diggings is in a forward state of completion, the timber and rank undergrowth of scrub having been cleared throughout, aud the contractors have commenced the various cuttings required. Pack-horses have already travelled over the new track with heavy loads, and to merchants in Hokitika as well its of the Kauieri, the opening of this new route will prove a great convenience. An action has been entered against Sergeant Hickson, of the police force, Hokitika, for illegally arresting Mr. Prince, of Lyons and Prince, during the arrangements being made by that firm for filing their petition. Patrick Keenan, who was imprisoned at tbe new gaol, Hokitika, awaiting trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court, made his escape recently from the warders by suddenly diving into the bush before tbe constable in charge had time to take any steps to prevent him. Early on the morning of the 3rd instant a man named Marchmont narrowly escaped a horrible death by his tent catching fire while he lay asleep in hed, near the tramway at the top of Revell-street, Hokitika. Two men in an adjoining tent awoke during the night by seeing a bright glare issue from Marchmont 's tent, to which they immediately rushed, in time to drag out the heavy sleeper, whose clothes were already on fire ancl his tent in lull blaze. We have Melbourne news to the Ist June. The Legislative Council have passed the Appropriation hill, which, it was supposed, would close the business of the session. Lieutenant-Geit6ral Carey insisted, and the Government yielded, and agreed to pay the remaining judgments obtained in the soft o-oods' actions, with costs. Letters from the Attorney-General's office have been received by the firms concerned ; they explain that the reason for the decision arrived at by the Government is their anxiety to avoid the scandal of a collision between the Government and the Supreme Court. The Melbourne Argus of the Ist instant reports : — We are informed that under date 19th April, 1866, Mr. Pect, partner in the firm of Messrs. Hunter, Houghton, and Co., of Batavia, writes as follows to a merchant in the city, " Yesterday a horrid affair was telegraphed from Auger. The ship Jeddo, with coolies for Suriuam from China, was set on fire by the coolies. The captain ran her ashore, and 260 coolies perished in the flames or by drowning." An apparatus for milking cows has been invented at Hamilton, Victoria. A silver

tube is inserted in each of the teats of a cow, the pistons are withdrawn, and the milk flows in a continuous stream. The funeral of the Prince de Cond_, son of the Duke (FAumale, was attended with great ceremony, at Sydney, on the 28th ult. Judge Boothby' s decision has been I'evei _ed in the Adelaide Supreme Court, and Parliament has been convened to consider his extraordinary conduct. The San Francisco markets have been dull since last advices. The departures for the colonies have been the Adeline Burke, for Melbourne, with a cargo of 4,581 half-sacks of flour ; the Kedar, for Melbourne, with 1,998 sacks of flour, 8,076 sacks of wheat, and 2,908 sacks of oats. At the time of our going to press a steamer was signalled from the south, supposed to be the Thane.